bdosborn wrote:Well that's pretty cool. I've been on the fence about putting panels on the house for years. Way to go.
Bruce
Bruce: the incentives in CO are much better than what we have here (by better, I mean you have them). Unfortunately the federal 30% tax incentive won't be renewed next year, but who knows they might drop the prices to compensate.
I was considering it in CO but I didn't want to put the modules on a ten+ year old roof, this house was a new construction so the roof is new. The big thing that made me consider doing it is the orientation of the roof, our rear roof faces SSW which is optimal. When I contacted my solar contractor, just e-mailed him the address and our monthly usage. He was able to find the house on Google maps and get right back to me with a net zero system design. When he initially called me back called the first thing he said was, "Nice roof!" His initial design was a 6.75kw, but Mel wanted to turn the a/c colder so I told him to fill that side of the roof with as many will fit it ended up being 7.5kw.
MtnDon wrote:Is that your own cold cash on the roof or one of the many agreements where "The Plan" installs and owns the hardware and you get either a (a) flat rate guarantee for a couple decades or (b) a reduced bill that may increase over time, or (c) something else?
Just curious about how what different people perceive as the best deal. I have one friend who owns all the hardware and basically pays no monthly bill. Another who has a fixed cost per month equipment lease and another who pays a monthly fee somehow based on actual use and generation with some guarantee it will always be less than a home without panels.
Don: No it technically isn't my cash on the roof, it was a solar loan offered by some credit unions, so technically it is the bank's cash on the roof. What you are talking about is a solar lease, my contractor told me about them, but wasn't a fan of them. The solar loan is pretty affordable, interest rate was pretty low and it is spread out over 20yrs with no early payment penalty plus I own the equipment. The first month we were still running a/c so we had a $20 electric bill. That combined with our monthly payment is still much lower than our lowest electric bill. I'm happy with a $20 electric bill on a 3300sq/ft house.